28, October 2016
Republican vice presidential candidate says massive voter fraud underway in US 0
US Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence says the mainstream media is biased against Donald Trump, and there are “many instances” of voter fraud in the run up to the November 8 election. Republican presidential nominee Trump has recently intensified his criticism of the American electoral system. He calls the election process rigged, and says the media is colluding with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in order to win the White House.
He has questioned the legitimacy of the US elections, saying that he believed the vote was already being “rigged” at many polling places. During his final presidential debate with Clinton last week, Trump declared that he might not accept the results of the November 8 presidential election if there is evidence it was rigged.
In an interview with CBS News on Friday, Trump’s running mate, Pence, said, “Make no mistake about it, there are many instances in our lifetimes of voter fraud in individual polling places and in certain jurisdictions.” “Donald Trump and I are just calling on people to respectfully participate in the electoral process. We want a victory on Election Day, but we also want it to be a victory for American democracy,” he stated.
The governor of Indiana rejected claims of critics that Trump’s “rigging” rhetoric may encourage violence by his supporters if he loses the presidential election.
“We certainly would denounce any calls for anything other people being vigorously involved in the electoral process,” he said. “I have to tell you, I really don’t see it. The people that rallying around our team, rallying around our cause, love this country, are passionate about this country and are anxious to see change,” the GOP vice presidential nominee stated.
He went on to accuse the media of unfairly backing Clinton. “The level of negative coverage about my running mate in many quarters in the national media has just been overwhelming compared to any negative coverage or frankly the avalanche of scandals coming out of Hillary Clinton’s years as secretary of State,” Pence said.
According to a recent poll released, 41 percent of American voters are saying the 2016 election could be “stolen” from Trump due to widespread voter fraud.
And 73 percent of Republican voters think the election could be stolen from the billionaire businessman, while 17 percent of Democrats agree with the prospect of rigging.
American writer and political commentator Stephen Lendman said on October 17 Washington has been rigging elections for nearly 200 years in order to keep anti-establishment candidates away from the White House.
Presstv
28, October 2016
UNICEF has negotiated the release of 876 children held in detention by Nigerian government forces 0
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has negotiated the release of scores of children held in detention by Nigerian government forces for their possible association with the Boko Haram Takfiri militants. UNICEF’s Manuel Fontaine said after visiting the capital city of the northeastern state of Borno on Friday that “876 children had been held in the barracks in Maiduguri.”
It was not immediately clear how long they had been detained, but the army routinely keeps close tabs on civilians who have been living in areas that had been under the control of the militants on suspicion that they too might be linked to terrorist activities. Rights groups say there is no proper legal process for such civilians, including the children, since they do not get formally charged and some end up in so-called rehabilitation centers, which the groups say have lots of resemblance to prisons.
The United Nations insists that children should not be kept in detention. “We fear that there are still kids who are being at least temporarily detained because they are being released from Boko Haram areas by the army but then kept for a while,” Fontaine, UNICEF’S regional director for Western and Central Africa, told reporters by telephone. He gave no details of the ages of the children or how long they had been held at the barracks.
Meanwhile, despite the government’s fight against the militants, the security situation remains volatile in Borno and its capital Maiduguri because Boko Haram still stages terrorist attacks and bombings, often using women or teenagers for the attacks. Fontaine also said the conflict, which has killed thousands and displaced more than two million, had separated about 20,000 children from their parents, of which 5,000 had since been reunited with their families.
“Once we get children out, there is a major issue of stigmatization in the communities,” Fontaine said. “There is a sense that children who have been associated with Boko Haram for a while, could be, and in some cases we have some evidence, are rejected by community and people around them.”
This was also a problem for the girls freed from the town of Chibok, he said. Nigeria this month negotiated the release of 21 of more than 200 girls Boko Haram kidnapped in April 2014. Boko Haram started its campaign of militancy in 2009 with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists.
Presstv